BOSTON — You do have to admire what a team guy A.J. Burnett is. Not only is he the guru of the whipped cream pie, but yesterday he was kind enough to make sure Mariano Rivera would not have to pitch for a fourth straight day for just the fourth time in his career.
By the time Burnett left, after registering just eight outs, last night’s game was over, especially considering how his one-time Marlins teammate, Josh Beckett, was humbling the Yankees lineup.
TONIGHT’S PREVIEW: Yankees at Red Sox
BURNETT AWFUL, BATS SILENT AS YANKEES GO TO 0-6 VS. RED SOX
The final score was Red Sox 7, Yankees 0, so now the won-loss score in 2009 is Red Sox 6, Yankees 0.
Which only makes Burnett’s failings against the Red Sox this season all the more intolerable. For the Yankees ignored a ton of red flags in giving Burnett $82.5 million for five years, in large part because one of his strongest selling points was that he excelled both against the Red Sox (5-0) and at Fenway (3-0). Last year, Burnett did not permit an earned run in 13 2/3 innings at Fenway in winning both of his starts here.
But on April 25, Burnett blew a 6-0 lead at Fenway. And last night, Burnett energized the Fenway crowd by permitting a two-run, second-inning homer to the struggling Boston icon David Ortiz and was knocked out in the third when he yielded an RBI double to the career utilityman Nick Green.
Burnett did not even wait until Girardi reached him with two outs in the third to begin moving off the mound. He handed the ball to his manager in mid-stride — no eye contact, no conversation — and continued in fury toward the visiting dugout where he booted a cooler off the top step of the dugout.
So he got mad and the Red Sox got even atop the AL East.
Girardi forgave the behavior, he said, because “I never judge anyone in the heat of the moment.”
Besides, Girardi had already pardoned this performance, saying, “I will take the blame. It is hard to pitch on seven days’ rest.”
It was six days’ rest. It also was a lame excuse. This was not some kid experiencing extra rest for the first time. Burnett was a Marlin from 1999-2005, and South Florida is home of the rain delay and the rainout. Before last night, in fact, Burnett had started on six or more days’ rest 28 times and produced a 12-9 record with a 3.83 ERA.
To his credit, Burnett refused to alibi for walking five and yielding five hits. He also described his work as a Yankee to date as “terrible,” but said he remained convinced that his best performances are ahead of him in 2009 and that he has lost no confidence against the Red Sox.
He might be right. But boy did the Yanks need him to do well against the Red Sox. Because this allowed Boston to forge its longest winning streak over the Yankees to begin a season since 1912, when Tris Speaker was the Red Sox center fielder and Babe Ruth was still two years away from joining their rotation. And the chances of the Red Sox moving to 7-0 against the Yanks has to be considered pretty strong since Chien-Ming Wang starts tonight at Fenway, where he usually did not pitch well even in his best of days. So it was bad timing for Burnett to have forced 5 1/3 innings of relief that might be needed for the untrustworthy Wang.
“It [this start] is embarrassing,” Burnett said.
So is the Yankees’ condition against the Red Sox, who get into the Yankees’ heads as quickly as they get into their bullpen. Girardi recommended looking at “the big picture,” in which the Yanks are tied atop the AL East with Boston despite the one-sided results. But do the Yanks really want to challenge the degree of difficulty by proving they can win a division while going 0-18 against their main rival?
Of course, Burnett was supposed to help restore the Yanks to the dominant spot in this rivalry. But so far he has been better with a whipped cream pie than a baseball.